Buttigieg Enters Presidential Race

Klobuchar has been looking to schedule a trip to New Hampshire.

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) announced an exploratory committee to run for president in 2020. (Hotline reporting)

In his announcement, Buttigieg said, “the show in Washington right now is exhausting: the corruption, the fighting, the lying, the sense of constant crisis… it has to end. But we can’t just revert to where we were a few years ago, trying to tinker with a broken system. This is a season for boldness, and we need to focus on the future. … I am considering a presidential campaign, and I’ve officially launched an exploratory committee.” (release)

In a two-minute launch video, Buttigieg says, “the reality is there’s no going back, and there’s no such thing as ‘again’ in the real world. We can’t look for greatness in the past. Right now our country needs a fresh start.” (release)

"His run will be explicitly about a generational contrast not just to the people in power, but to most of the people running in his own party." (The Atlantic)

HARRIS. In the first 24 hours of launching her campaign, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) “raised over $1.5 million with 99.9% of donations coming from small grassroots donors.” (release) “Harris is pitching herself as the one who can actually put together a winning coalition of voters, which Democrats have obsessed about ever achieving again since their 2016 shocker loss.” (The Atlantic)

KLOBUCHAR. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) has been putting out feelers in New Hampshire trying to schedule a trip to the state, per multiple sources familiar. (Hotline reporting)

WARREN. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Tuesday “hosted a community conversation about Puerto Rico and its recovery at the Alejandro Tapia y Rivera Theater in San Juan, Puerto Rico. … ‘Puerto Rico has not been treated with respect,’” she said. (release)

GILLIBRAND. “In a new round of staff hires,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D-NY) “presidential exploratory committee is making diversity a key priority, as she and other Democratic hopefuls try to position themselves for a long primary battle. Gillibrand’s newest round of campaign staff hires, announced Tuesday morning, includes several veterans of her Senate office and previous congressional campaigns. The group includes two African American staffers and one Latina. Of the six new staffers, four are women.”

“Evan Lukaske, most recently the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s northeast press secretary, will join as Gillibrand’s national press secretary. Alexandria Phillips, who previously worked in both Gillibrand and Sen. Chuck Schumer’s Senate offices, will serve as traveling press secretary. Stefanie Conahan and Erica Bordador, who were both part of her campaign fundraising team previously, will serve as finance and deputy finance director, respectively. Gregory Smiley, the campaign manager on Gillibrand’s 2018 re-election campaign, will serve as her national deputy political director. And Alexandra Sanchez, her Senate research director and adviser since Gillibrand joined the Senate in 2009, will serve as her research director.” (ABC News)

BETO. “A political group that’s urging” former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) “to run for the Democratic presidential nomination will hold two events next week in New Hampshire–the state that for a century has held the first primary in the race for the White House. The political action committee Draft Beto 2020 – which is not connected with the former congressman from Texas–announced on Tuesday that it will hold a house party Jan. 30, at the Concord home of Democratic activist and attorney Jay Surdukowski.” (Concord Monitor)

BOOKER. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) “says he is nearing a decision on whether to run for president in 2020, but the New Jersey Democrat's schedule over the past weekend left little doubt as to what the decision will ultimately be. Over the course of a four-day swing through the South, Booker set the stage for his all-but-inevitable campaign: checking in with influential African-American political leaders and bringing his call for a "revival of civic grace" to their communities.” (CNN)

BLOOMBERG. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (D) “defended his record on stop-and-frisk, saying New York City police ‘certainly’ did not stop people based on their race.” (Washington Post)

BROWN. “As he weighs a run for president,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) “will headline a major New Hampshire Young Democrats fundraising and organizing event in Manchester on Feb. 9… Brown will cap off two days of campaign-style activity by delivering the keynote remarks at the NHYD’s annual Granite Slate Awards event at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester. He will arrive in the state the previous day to speak with Granite Staters in several stops, yet to be announced, as part of his “Dignity of Work” tour, which will launch in Cleveland on Jan. 30.” (WMUR) Brown appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show last night, urging candidates to “talk in terms of progressive issues, and talk about what we need to do for workers.” (MSNBC) And he was on Morning Joe this morning, largely echoing the same message (MSNBC)

GARCETTI. Los Angeles teachers are ending the strike and will be back in the classroom Wednesday after “the intense talks were mediated by’’ Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) “and his senior staff.” (Los Angeles Times) “In some potentially important ways, Eric Garcetti’s presidential hopes got a lift Tuesday morning when the Los Angeles mayor helped end the teachers strike in the nation’s second-largest school district. But Garcetti’s role in the settlement between officials of Los Angeles Unified and the teachers union is hardly a springboard to the White House...The more that Garcetti supporters portray the settlement as a major problem solved by the 47-year-old second-term mayor, the more opponents will point to other problems that remain unsolved, most notably the L.A. homelessness crisis. Garcetti was instrumental in passing city and county ballot measures to fund anti-homelessness projects, but the effects are years away… The apparent triumph for Garcetti, who publicly became involved in the negotiations shortly after the strike began Jan. 14, could blow up in his face if he overplays his hand by trying to overstate his role or the significance of the achievement.” (San Jose Mercury News)

HICKENLOOPER. Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) will go to Iowa this weekend, headlining a house party before heading to a brewery. (KDVR) Hickenlooper said last night that he will decide if he runs by March. (CNN)

INSLEE. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D), speaking to students at St. Anselm’s in New Hampshire, “mentioned climate change 21 times during a 25-minute address in which he stated that the fight against climate change was an “urgent matter” that the next presidential administration should “intensely focus on as a first and foremost priority… Dubbing his proposal “New Apollo Project,” Inslee wrote that leveraging America’s “can-do attitude” in the fight against climate change would “design, invent and deploy the new clean energy technologies that befit this new century.” (Union Leader)

KERRY. Former Secretary of State John Kerry (D) “had a one-word answer when asked his message for President Donald Trump: 'Resign.'" (CNBC)

KLOBUCHAR. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) has been putting out feelers in New Hampshire trying to schedule a trip to the state, per multiple sources familiar. (Hotline reporting)

STEYER. Mega-donor Tom Steyer (D) “is launching an effort to make every Democrat campaigning to run against ... Trump first come out in support of impeachment. Volunteers from Steyer’s organization, Need to Impeach, already showed up at several of Elizabeth Warren’s events earlier this month during her first swing through Iowa and tried to pin her down on impeachment.

“Soon, Steyer’s team will expand that effort as other candidates swing through the early-voting states. More is in the works, as the San Francisco–based billionaire and impeachment activist promises to put in another $40 million, on top of the $50 million he invested last year, to turn the list of 7 million people who’ve signed his online petition to impeach Trump into a ‘force on the ground’ for pressing the issue.

“He’s a new, and so far unique, presence in American politics: a man with essentially unlimited resources on a single-minded mission, who believes any gripe he gets is more proof that he’s right. To some, Steyer is helping make the conversation around impeachment part of the mainstream. To others, he looks like he’s on a long, pointless ego trip.” (The Atlantic)

SOUTH CAROLINA. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D) said “he won’t endorse a presidential candidate until close to South Carolina’s Democratic primary date, if at all." Clyburn: "I’m not gonna take sides. It’ll be a long time before I take sides in this race.” (Politico)

CAMPAIGN CULTURE. “Unionizing. Paying interns $15 an hour. Ensuring time off. Institutionalizing salary transparency… there is an intensifying conviction among progressive operatives that internal campaign culture should reflect the very values that 2020 Democratic hopefuls passionately tout on the trail… Only one already-declared presidential contender made a commitment: Julián Castro, the former Obama administration housing secretary and the ex-mayor of San Antonio, would support his staffers if they want to unionize and will pay a $15 minimum wage.” (McClatchy)

DARK MONEY. As Democratic presidential hopefuls promise not to boost their candidacies through spending by outside groups with cash from wealthy donors, sometimes given secretly, a new report says the party received most of the so-called “dark money” spent on political ads in the 2018 midterms. That marked the first time since 2010 that liberal nonprofits outspent conservative ones, according to a report by Issue One, an organization that advocates reducing money in politics. Liberal groups accounted for 54% of the $150 million in dark-money spending in last year’s election cycle, conservative groups 31% and nonpartisan or bipartisan groups 15%.” (Wall Street Journal)

THEY’RE SORRY. “Several potential candidates have delivered mea culpas as they scramble to align their positions with the party's shift to the left on issues like immigration, health care and criminal justice reform… Democrats believe the atonements are largely driven by the leftward shift in the party, given many of the candidates running have once in their careers held views or done something at odds with current Democratic standards.” (CNN)